Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. achieved record highs in all profit categories in 2024, with double-digit gains. Business profit in tires grew by 38.2%.
Sales for the year grew to $6.95 billion, up 11% from the previous year. Yokohama’s tire sales increased 12.1% during the year, to $6.22 billion. Tires accounted for 89.6% of Yokohama’s consolidated sales revenue for the year.
Business profit for the entire company increased 35.6% to $853.2 million, while operating profit was up 18.7%.
“The strong year-on-year growth in Group business profit reflects successful efforts to increase sales volume, realize more optimal product prices and expand sales of consumer tires with sizes of 18-inches or larger,” Yokohama said in its report.
Yokohama said the business sentiment in Japan was “positive overall” in 2024, with the “strong output of production-related machinery and other manufacturing equipment on the back of firm demand for semiconductors, as well as the strong sales of materials-related products such as petroleum and coal products amid a decline in the prices of key resources.” Yet, consumer spending “was rather weak” in part to lower automotive production and “the high prices of food and services.”
Revenue in both original equipment and replacement tires was higher in 2024 than in 2023, and Yokohama’s off-highway tire (OHT) business unit “overcame difficult market conditions, including a large reduction in new production by agricultural machinery makers.” The year-over-year growth in sales was driven by the replacement markets “mainly in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”
The OHT business includes Yokohama’s legacy operations, the Alliance Tire Group business it acquired in 2016, and in 2024 it included a full-year contribution from Y-TWS, the Trelleborg Wheel Systems business which was acquired in May 2023.
Outlook for 2025
Yokohama is moving ahead with the assumption that Japan’s economy “will remain on a moderate recovery track.” At the same time, the picture outside of Japan is less certain.
“The outlook for overseas business conditions remains clouded by the potential impact from countries’ trade policies and other measures.”
Still, Yokohama is calling for an 11% increase in global sales for 2025, with revenue of $7.74 billion. The tiremaker is forecasting business profit of $876.2 million, a gain of nearly 2.7%.
Yokohama’s tire strategies
As part of its three-year management plan for fiscal years 2024-2026, Yokohama has outlined some strategies for its tire businesses.
“In the consumer tire market, recent years have seen low-cost, low-price emerging tiremakers expand their production capacity and increase their market share. In response, during YX2026 (the name of the three-year management plan) Yokohama Rubber will accelerate its efforts to maximize the sales ratio of its high-value-added tires as it aims to increase the profitability of its consumer tire business.
“In addition, the consumer tire business has initiated the ‘one-year plant’ challenge, which aims to bring new plants online within one year and achieve the low cost and high efficiency needed to compete with the cost competitiveness of emerging tiremakers and achieve ‘hockey stick growth.’
“As part of its effort to maximize the sales ratio of high-value-added tires and enhance brand value, the consumer tire business will promote its tires as original equipment (OE) for premium cars and continue its participation in motorsports events around the world. It also will continue its ‘product and regional strategies’ focused on strengthening the development, supply and sales of tires that respond to specific trends in each regional market.”
In the off-highway tire business, Yokohama says the global market is expected to grow 6% annually, “considerably higher than the projected 2% annual growth for the consumer tire market.” Agriculture and forestry machinery is expected to account for about 40% of this global market.
“The Yokohama Rubber Group has the top share in this market segment and plans to strengthen its market position by implementing a multi-brand strategy that will leverage its production, sales and technology strengths in all three tiers of this market segment.”
The company says it holds the second-largest share of the global market for industrial and port-use machinery. Yokohama plans to expand its global operation of Interfit, a tire maintenance service offered by “highly specialized staff” into new countries.
Yokohama also sees its newest acquisition of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s OTR business as a boost to its existing “rather small” market share in construction and mining machinery tires.
“This acquisition expands the Group’s sales channels and production capacity for construction and mining machinery tires,” but it also will allow for the combination of Goodyear’s “advanced production technologies and other technological capabilities” to be merged with Yokohama’s existing off-highway resources to support additional growth.
And finally, in the world of medium truck tires, Yokohama notes this is “another area where emerging tiremakers are expanding production capacity and seek to increase their supply in markets around the world.
“However, this effort is being met by anti-dumping and countervailing duties in Europe and the United States. Yokohama Rubber will aim for profitable growth by strengthening sales in countries and regions where these measures are supporting the maintenance of appropriate pricing.”
